Russia’s efforts to sway the 2024 election are aimed at boosting a past favored candidate, say US officials. This strategy mirrors the extensive interference seen in the 2016 election, where Russia’s actions were designed to damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign, enhance Donald Trump’s chances, and sow distrust in American democracy.
In 2016, Russian operatives probed state voter databases, hacked the Clinton campaign, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). They also attempted to hack the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio. The operatives released politically damaging information online, spread propaganda on social media, staged rallies, and set up meetings with Trump campaign members. They even floated a business proposition for a skyscraper in Moscow to the Trump Organization.
The U.S. intelligence community, supported by evidence gathered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, concluded that these efforts aimed to damage Clinton’s campaign, boost Trump’s chances, and undermine American democracy. Details of these efforts have emerged gradually through intelligence memos, court documents, testimonies, and investigative reports.
One significant aspect of Russia’s interference was probing state voter databases. Although U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia did not alter actual votes, they targeted voter registration systems or state websites in at least 21 states before Election Day. They fully accessed some states’ systems and stole hundreds of thousands of voters’ personal information. The FBI alerted states to the threat about two months before the 2016 election when hackers accessed voter registration databases in Illinois and Arizona. However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not inform top state officials that their systems were scanned by hackers until nearly a year after the election.
In July 2018, Mueller indicted 12 Russian nationals for allegedly hacking into U.S. election systems. The indictment revealed that hackers stole information on 500,000 voters from an unnamed state’s website, including names, addresses, partial Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and driver’s license numbers. Russians also visited the websites of counties in Georgia, Iowa, and Florida. They penetrated a voter registration software vendor and posed as the company, sending malicious emails to several Florida election administrators.
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report stated that in a small number of states, Russians gained access to restricted elements of election infrastructure and were in a position to alter or delete voter registration data.
Another striking element of Russia’s plan to influence the U.S. election involved hacking the emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff. Russian military intelligence agents, known as GRU, began these efforts in March 2016. They sent emails that appeared to be Google security notifications to Clinton campaign staffers and volunteers. These emails instructed recipients to click a link to change their password, giving Russian agents access to their accounts. The GRU agents stole tens of thousands of emails from Clinton campaign staffers, including campaign chairman John Podesta. They created a fake online group called Guccifer 2.0 to share these emails with WikiLeaks, which released the stolen emails in the run-up to the November election, creating negative news cycles for Clinton.
The hacking extended to the DCCC, where GRU officers used malicious emails to gain access to the committee’s computer network. They installed malware, accessed more computers, and stole thousands of emails and documents related to the election. In April 2016, the hackers searched a DCCC computer for terms like “hillary,” “cruz,” and “trump,” and copied a folder titled “Benghazi Investigations.”
This access to the DCCC allowed the hackers to penetrate the DNC network. In early June 2016, the Russian officers launched DCLeaks.com and posted thousands of stolen documents and emails. Days later, the DNC announced it had been hacked, prompting the Russians to create the Guccifer 2.0 persona to shift attention away from them. The Russian agents, posing as Guccifer 2.0, shared stolen documents with WikiLeaks, which released more than 20,000 stolen emails just days before the Democratic National Convention.
The Trump campaign showed interest in these releases. According to an indictment against longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, a “senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information” WikiLeaks had about Clinton’s campaign. Stone had been bragging about connections to WikiLeaks and continued to update the Trump campaign about the group’s plans. In early October, Steve Bannon, then Trump’s campaign chairman, reached out to Stone after WikiLeaks delayed releasing emails. When WikiLeaks released Podesta’s emails on October 7, 2016, just after the Washington Post published audio of Trump bragging about assaulting women, Bannon sent Stone a message: “well done.”
Russia’s influence efforts also targeted other Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio. In December 2016, Sen. Lindsey Graham revealed that his presidential campaign’s emails had been hacked, and the DC Leaks website published some emails related to Republicans. In March 2017, Rubio told the Senate Intelligence Committee that his presidential campaign was targeted by Russians after he dropped out of the race in 2016. He described cyberattacks that took place after he dropped his bid for the White House, but experts said he was targeted as early as the 2016 primary season.
Russian hackers also probed the RNC, but their efforts were more limited and less successful than those aimed at Democrats. Former FBI Director James Comey testified in January 2017 that Russians tried to target the RNC in 2016. However, he clarified that these domains were no longer in use when hackers probed them and that the Russians did not release any information they found from these efforts.
Russia’s influence efforts extended to social media, where they developed a “troll farm” to spread false and disparaging messages. Mueller’s February 2018 indictment charged 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies, including the Internet Research Agency, with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and identity theft. The Internet Research Agency sought to conduct “information warfare against the United States of America” to spread distrust and support Trump’s election. They posted divisive content, bought political ads criticizing Clinton, and pumped out hashtags like #Hillary4Prison and #TrumpTrain.
Russia’s influence efforts also included staging physical events in the U.S., posing as American grassroots activists, and setting up and promoting rallies in swing states like Florida and Pennsylvania. They even hired a real American to dress as Clinton in a prison uniform at a rally in West Palm Beach.
The Russian influence efforts also included meeting with members of the Trump campaign. One of the earliest targets was George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the campaign. Papadopoulos met a professor named Joseph Mifsud, who claimed to have Kremlin connections, and a woman named Olga, who claimed to be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s niece. They offered to set up a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, which Papadopoulos eagerly passed on to Trump and other campaign officials.
In April 2016, Trump briefly met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before giving a foreign policy speech. Sessions and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also met with Kislyak that day. The White House later tried to downplay these meetings, but the Washington Post reported that Sessions had “substantive” discussions about Russia-related policy.
Russians also set up a meeting with Donald Trump Jr., promising a Russian lawyer would have documents that could “incriminate” Clinton. This led to the infamous Trump Tower meeting in June 2016, attended by Trump Jr., Kushner, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Manafort, who had connections to Russia from his days consulting politicians in Ukraine, came under scrutiny for his discussions with Konstantin Kilimnik, who prosecutors believe has links to Russian intelligence. Court filings revealed that Manafort shared polling data with Kilimnik during the campaign and discussed a potential peace plan for Ukraine.
While the special counsel’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russian government, Mueller’s indictments showed that people in Trump’s orbit were often happy to accept help from Russians when offered. These actions are unprecedented in U.S. history, according to Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.
Russia also tried to recruit people associated with Trump, such as Carter Page, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser. Russian intelligence agents tried to recruit him as early as 2013, and Page continued his contact with Russians while working for the Trump campaign. In July 2016, Page traveled to Russia, gave a speech, met with at least one Kremlin official, and informed at least four Trump campaign officials about his activities. The FBI obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to wiretap Page.
Economic interests also played a role in Russia’s relationship with Trump during the 2016 campaign. Despite Trump’s denials of any business in Russia, his personal lawyer Michael Cohen spent much of 2016 working on a deal to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen’s efforts included reaching out to the Kremlin for help, planning a trip to Russia, and briefing Trump’s children Trump Jr. and Ivanka about the plans. Cohen initially lied to Congress about the extent of the project but later pleaded guilty and testified again, saying that Trump indirectly encouraged him to lie.
Experts believe the Mueller investigation may have uncovered evidence of why the Trump campaign misled the public about Trump’s efforts to do business in Moscow. While the investigation concluded that there was no collusion with the Russian government, it does not mean there was no undue influence on Trump’s actions as a candidate.
As the 2024 election approaches, U.S. officials warn that Russia’s efforts to sway the election are aimed at boosting a past favored candidate, reflecting the extensive interference seen in 2016.
Source: CNN
